Forgiveness
by LetItRain25
Summary: Barry and Oliver fight a meta-human while trying to work things out between themselves following the events of Flashpoint. Hurt!Barry Oliver starts out as kind of a jerk, but then he's adorable!


Author's Note

Hello! So this story takes place after Barry corrects the Flashpoint timeline. It's essentially an AU version of telling team Arrow about the changes. All of that said, I'm giving you fair warning that I haven't actually seen any of the episodes where Flashpoint occurs. I literally occasionally get to watch these shows on TV and that's pretty much it, so I apologize that the characters are probably AU-ish. But I love both shows and both characters and I just couldn't help myself. The work is un-beta'd so any mistakes are my own. Spoilers ahead? Maybe? If you're behind on the show….Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoy!

P.S. I own nothing in regards to either show/characters/etc.

Forgiveness

"You'll heal," Oliver says, pressing on the wound.

Barry screams at the intrusion, collapsing further in on himself. "Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt," he grinds out.

Oliver stares at him, as if startled by the revelation. "No, I suppose not," he responds tightly.

"So how do we get out of here?" Barry asks in a futile attempt to distract himself.

"No idea," Oliver responds, tearing off some cloth from Barry's shirt and tying it across Barry's midsection. "This is gonna hurt," he grunts, mouth holding part of the cloth. He pulls the other half around Barry and tightens it, forming a make-shift bandage.

Barry finds himself screaming through locked jaw as his back arches off of the wall.

"Yet," Barry says.

"What?" Oliver questions, taking the moment to look around the building.

"You don't know how we're getting out of here, yet," Barry clarifies.

"Of course," Oliver responds cheekily as Barry rolls his eyes.

"How long until you can walk?" Oliver asks, looking to Barry.

They were fighting a meta-human in the abandoned building, when said meta brought the building down around them. Barry managed to push Oliver out of the way, earning a pipe through the stomach as a thanks.

"You do realize this isn't actually magic, right?" Barry responds tightly, arm waving to show his stomach.

Barry understands that Oliver is mad about the timeline thing. Oliver has a right to be mad about Flashpoint. Everyone has a right to be mad at Barry about Flashpoint, but now is neither the time nor place.

Oliver rolls his eyes in annoyance. "Timeframe, Barry," he demands.

"I don't know, ok? A couple of hours maybe?" Barry says, eyes rolling back in his head as he pushes himself up straighter.

Barry had to tell Team Arrow about Flashpoint when they called him to help them with this meta. Ever since he faced the combined disappointed stares of Oliver and Felicity he's been pushing himself. It apparently hasn't helped, but he's telling himself it's the thought that counts. He remembers telling Diggle about the daughter he'll never have now, and reminds himself that he's earned this; he has to push himself because he owes it to everyone to do so.

Oliver circles the room. They were in the basement of an abandoned factory at the time of the fight. Now there's nothing but a wall of rubble where the staircase used to be.

"Do you think you can speed-move rocks?" he finds himself asking.

"Speed-move?" Barry asks dubiously.

Oliver rolls his eyes, "Just…move them quickly?" He huffs and waves his hand, "You know what I mean. I don't know if our GPS can still be determined through the building, and-"

"And the teams don't know where we are," Barry finishes as he remembers the abrupt change of plans they'd made upon realizing the meta was baiting them.

"I can try," Barry offers, steeling himself to move. He pushes away from the wall and drags himself to standing. He gasps, bending at the waist, leaning against the wall for support as the room spins and the pain swallows him whole.

Oliver looks over to Barry as he hears the gasp, and goes to help support him as the Flash struggles to stand upright.

"I'm good," Barry groans out, taking careful baby steps away from Oliver.

Oliver is skeptical, but the meta was going after a hospital as revenge for the death of a child. The meta's son had died of cancer, and the meta wanted revenge on the doctor. For all Oliver knew it was the doctor's fault, but he didn't think the rest of the people in the hospital deserved having the building be brought down on top of them.

Frankly, if there was another way out he'd take it, but at this point they needed to make progress, and they needed to do it now. The hospital is on the other side of town, and the meta thankfully doesn't have super speed, but that was the only thing on their side at the moment.

Barry made it to the wall and looked back at Oliver as if both doubtful and asking encouragement.

"We don't have a choice," is all Oliver says.

Barry knows that he deserves the cold detachment that Oliver has been giving him, but that doesn't mean he has to like it.

"This is gonna suck," he mumbles to himself as he reaches for the speed-force. He's able to move maybe three rocks before he falls to his knee as the pain rockets through him.

Oliver comes over as Barry collapses, heaving deep breaths.

"I can't-" Barry pants. He is caught by Oliver, who takes a deep breath and pulls Barry up into a standing position, letting the younger man lean against him as he catches his breath.

Oliver knows that Barry has been beating himself up for Flashpoint. He knows that Barry is doing everything he can to make up for it, and he knows that he can't blame Barry for anything that happened. He is upset because Barry forgot that actions have consequences; even Oliver will admit that Barry has learned that lesson and then some.

That's why he hates himself for what he says next, "You can run fast enough to change time and open dimensional portals, but when an entire hospital is in danger you're too tired?"

Oliver feels like he's lost another piece of _Oliver Queen_ as he feels Barry let out a broken sob, gripping Oliver's shirt to pull himself upright. He steels himself, crafting a carefully blank face as Barry locks hurt-filled eyes with him.

Barry seems to deflate then, head hanging in resignation as he pulls himself away from the Arrow. He shakes his head to clear his pain-filled, foggy vision and then he runs.

He in no way clears away all of the debris, but within a few moments there's a path. Oliver doesn't even get a chance to appreciate it before he feels Barry grab him and yank him through it, dumping them both unceremoniously on the ground above.

Oliver takes a moment to case their surroundings as he turns his GPS on and hears a confirmation of the signal. He taps his ear piece, telling the team where the meta is going, and here's Red Arrow and Diggle say they are on the way to the hospital. He grunts confirmation, but his eyes are immediately drawn to the speedster as he feels Barry fall to the ground, harsh sobs escaping as he struggles to breathe through the pain.

"Hey, hey, you're ok," Oliver says, bending down and gently pulling Barry's head into his lap.

Barry turns in to Oliver, hand grabbing loose fabric in a tight fist as he fights. At this point he isn't sure if he's fighting for consciousness or just because he doesn't know what else to do to make the pain stop.

"Stay with me!" Oliver says, shaking Barry as the younger man's breaths slow and his eyes begin to droop closed.

"'m sorry," Barry mumbles, trying and failing to blink away the black spots in his vision.

"Barry? Barry you have to stay awake," Oliver says firmly.

"Ollie?" Barry asks, as he struggles to fight through the fog that has become his brain.

"You did so good, Barry, so good, but we're not done yet," Oliver says as he changes position to kneel at Barry's side.

Not done yet? Barry racks his brain trying to figure out what they were doing. It definitely seems like they should be done now. He's so tired, and hungry, and sore, and what were they even doing in the first place?

"Did you shoo' me 'gain?" Barry mumbles, shocking a laugh out of the Arrow.

He's cupping Barry's face with his right hand as the other moves towards the wound.

"Barry? Barry look at me," he says, waiting for the Speedsters eyes to find him. Oliver absently notes how glassy the gaze is as he continues, "Barry this is going to hurt, ok?"

"Wha?" is all Barry gets out before Oliver pushes on the wound _hard_.

Barry screams for what feels like the 10th time that night, back arching off the ground, memories crashing into him as he rides out the wave of pain.

"Hospital?" Barry manages. Oliver nods an affirmative, pleased at the clarity that returns to Barry's eyes.

"Do you think we can call for back-up? 'Cuz I'm not entirely sure I'm gonna be very helpful once we get there," Barry manages to groan out, turning to curl in on himself as he subconsciously tries to protect his midsection.

"I called them, already, Barry and they're gonna meet us there," Oliver says.

"'Kay," Barry says. "Help?" he manages to say, extending his arm out for Oliver to grab.

"This is going to hurt," Oliver says, skeptically.

"Is that all you ever say?" Barry agrees, holding his hand higher in intent.

Oliver pulls Barry up into a sitting position, giving the man a moment to breathe before he pulls him all the way up.

For the second time that night he listens as Barry screams through a locked jaw.

Oliver pulls the younger man against him, Barry turning his head into the crook between shoulder and jaw.

In this position Barry is able to feel safe for one second. For the first time since Flashpoint he isn't the one trying to hold everything together. He feels his eyes start to close of their own accord, before startling awake again as he feels Oliver's grip tighten.

"You good?" Oliver asks, receiving a nod in response.

"Are you good enough to run us to the hospital?" Oliver asks, trying to duck down to get Barry to look him in the eyes.

Barry visibly blanches at the thought, nausea pounding into him. "Yep," he says, significantly less confidently this time.

"Barry, I don't want us to die because you passed out running. Can you make it?" he says, voice going hard to convey the seriousness of the question.

Oliver regrets the tone of voice immediately as he sees the same hurt flash across the speedsters face.

"Don't—I'm not—I'm not mad," Oliver manages to get out, the words getting stuck on his tongue.

"You seem pretty mad," Barry says doubtfully.

"Well, I'm telling you I'm not," Oliver says, growing irritated at having to express his feelings. Barry gives him what Cisco refers to as Skeptical-Eyebrow in response.

Oliver huffs and rolls his eyes. "I get why you did it. I don't even disagree with what you did, exactly, it's just,"

"I need to know there are consequences," Barry finishes quietly.

"Basically, yeah," Oliver agrees.

"I know," Barry mumbles, fresh tears in his eyes.

"I know," Oliver offers. "Now let's go," he says, pulling Barry's arm over his shoulder, and wrapping his arm around Barry's waist.

"This is gonna suck so hard," Barry mutters, stepping forward.

"Guys!" Harper yells over the earpiece.

"Wait," Arrow says, stopping Barry.

"Guys!" Harper says again.

"What?" Oliver responds.

"Don't bother coming—the guy's dead," Harper explains.

"What?" Oliver asks, confused.

"We got the building evacuated. I don't know if they guy just freaked or what, but he brought the building down on himself. Dig just pulled his body out. The guy's definitely dead."

Barry can't help it, "Oh thank God," he says, slipping out of Oliver's grasp and falling to the ground.

"I know I said it was gonna be fine, but I was fairly certain we were gonna run into a parked car and die or something," Barry mumbles, hands weakly flailing from his place on the pavement.

"Stay there and monitor the clean-up. Send Felicity over in the van. Have her bring Caitlin—Barry's hurt pretty bad," Oliver says, smiling slightly as Barry's exhaustion.

"On it," he hears Hale respond.

"Don't worry, Barry—Caitlin's on the way," Oliver says, couching down next to Barry.

"So I can pass out now?" Barry asks, eyes already drifting shut, more than tapped out of any reserves.

"Yeah, you can pass out now," Oliver chuckles.

"You promise you're not mad?" Barry asks, trying to look anywhere but at Oliver. He feels like he's a little kid talking to Joe or Iris.

"Barry," Oliver says, leaning to be in Barry's line-of-sight. "I'm not mad. I'm not saying you made perfect choices, but I'm proud of how you've dealt with the consequences. Although slightly less self-sacrifice would be appreciated," he says, smiling at the end.

"Yessir," Barry slurs, finally letting his eyes drift shut as he feels Oliver lightly run a hand through his hair (which Oliver would fervently deny doing if anyone asks).

"We got your back, Barry," Oliver assures. "No matter what."

When Felicity and Caitlin arrive it's to find Oliver guarding over Barry with the same love and devotion that he guards his city.

"It's about time," Felicity says, smiling as she climbs out of the van.

"How is he?" Oliver demands as Caitlin bends to check Barry's wounds.

"He'll heal," she says, eyes revealing poorly concealed concern.

"Doesn't mean it won't still hurt," Oliver returns.

"He'll be ok," Felicity assures, "he has us."

"Yes he does," Caitlin agrees, seeing the same determination mirrored in Oliver's eyes.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

I wrote this on my lunch break at work today, so I'm sorry if it feels rushed! I'm working on a couple of other fics that have morphed into stupidly long sagas, so I was super excited to finally have a work that hasn't developed into an epic tale Hope you enjoyed! Constructive criticism is always welcome, and feel free to fav/comment because that always makes my day!


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